(30-40 minutes)

OBJECTIVE
Students learn how to navigate the World Wide Web and locate Web sites of interest.

MATERIALS
Access to the Internet

GET READY

• Arrange for your class to have access to the Internet. If possible, seat two students to each computer.
• Before the activity, talk to your students about various forms of media and information. You may also want to engage them in a dialogue on credibility, discussing what makes some information valid and other information not (What is the source of the information? How current is it? etc.).

• Ask your students to think of characteristics of a good decision (examples: well thought-out or based on information from many sources).
• Say: Good decisions are based on accurate information. One source of information is the World Wide Web. It is a great place for finding information regarding any topic including history, voting, democracy, and so on.
• Tell your students that they are going to work in pairs to navigate the Web and research a topic.
• First, have your students visit the Kids Voting USA Web site. They should type www.kidsvotingusa.org into the address bar.
• Next, have your students click on the "Resources" icon on the left-hand side of the screen. A page will pop up with lots of interesting Web sites for kids and young adults. Have the pairs "surf" around, visiting some of the various Web sites.
• Tell the pairs that as they "surf" they should pay attention to the things they want to learn more about: the presidency, Congress, the U.S. Constitution, etc.
• Give the pairs a few minutes to determine what they would like to research.
• Next, have the pairs use search engines to research their topic of interest. They can use any of the popular search engines: Yahoo!, Google, etc.
• Inform your students that entering keywords like "voting," "election," "campaign," and "president" might help them narrow their search for relevant Web sites.
• Give the pairs 10 to 15 minutes to visit several Web sites relating to their topic.
• Have the pairs report on what they learned. They should be prepared to reference from which  Web sites they got their information.

• Did you find it challenging to use the Internet? If yes, how so?
• Was it easy to search for information on your topic? Why or why not?
• How did you feel about the amount of information you found? The quality of the information?
• How do you think the World Wide Web might be helpful to voters?

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